“Power of search” keeps Google #1 with WPP; Facebook poised for #2; Snapchat gaining

What keeps Google at the top of WPP’s media supplier list? “The power of search is phenomenal,” WPP chief executive Martin Sorrell said this week at the UBS Media and Communications Conference, referring to Google, the The Wall Street Journal first reported. The holding company will spend about $5 billion with Google this year, up from $4 billion last year. Google has also turned YouTube into a significant asset. “Google search and YouTube video continue to be very powerful mediums, particularly in high-penetration TV markets,” Sorrell said on WPP’s third-quarter earnings call at the end of October. Sorrell said Facebook was likely to rise from WPP’s third-largest media supplier to the second-largest in 2017 and that WPP now spends about $70 million with Snapchat.